With the growing popularity of publicly-accessible computer networks such as the Internet, there is an increasing interest in developing ways to use such networks for distributing information to people and organizations most likely to be interested in the information content, referred to herein as a "targeted audience." The variety of information to be distributed is very broad, including public-interest notices and announcements, marketing and advertisements, and product-recall notices, for example.
One way in which information is distributed to a targeted audience on the Internet is by network sites often referred to as search engines. These sites enable a person to identify other sites on the Internet which are likely sources of desired information or services by presenting lists of sites which claim to have content matching keywords or search terms provided by the person. Many search engines also present selected advertisements and notices in response to search terms identified in advance which suggest the person is likely to be interested in the advertised product or service or in the subject of the notice.
Unfortunately, this method of distributing information suffers from several limitations. First, it depends on members of the targeted audience to use a search engine. Depending on the characteristics of the targeted audience, it is quite likely that large segments of this audience may not use search engines.
Second, it requires that members of the targeted audience use particular search engines. Information will not be delivered to a member of that audience who uses a search engine which is not set up to distribute that particular information. There are many search engines on the Internet and the number of search engine sites is likely to increase; therefore, this is likely to become a greater problem.
Third, this way of distributing information requires a person to specify pertinent keywords which have been identified in advance. If alternate terms are used, the information will not be delivered.
Fourth, a search engine cannot present information from competing sources with equal priority or visibility. If a list of potential sources is presented, for example, only one of the sources can be listed first.